Tech Titans Help Drive Ice Bucket Challenge Tally To $9.5 Million To Benefit ALS Research

The Ice Bucket Challenge is re-writing the textbooks on viral fundraising. The ALS Association said today it had received $9.5 million in donations between July 29 and Aug. 15 compared to $1.6 million in the same period last year as celebrities, TV hosts and CEOs took the challenge. The new funds came from existing donors and 184,812 new donors to the association.

This week, some titans of tech went under the bucket. They include Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who accepted New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's challenge, and in turn called out Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) COO Sheryl Sandberg, Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) CEO Reed Hastings and Bill Gates. According to the rules, the challenge must be accepted in 24 hours or you must make a $100 donation to the association that funds research into ALS or Lou Gehrig's Disease.

Twitter CEO Dick Costolo too the challenge, as did Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, who nominated Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and Google CEO Larry Page. Apple CEO Tim Cook got into the act and nominated Walt Disney Co. CEO Bob Iger and one of his new employees, Beats Electronics co-founder Dr. Dre. The combative T-Mobile CEO John Legere of course took the challenge and called out the CEOs of Verizon, AT&T and Sprint.

Watch some titans of tech take the challenge below: